How to: Get rid of the nofollow attribute on your Wordpress blog
Wordpress, like many other blog engines, uses the rel=”nofollow” attribute in comments for the so-called fight against spam. If this was a good idea, it is totally ineffective, and in addition, a link with this attribute will not receive any credit by Google when they rank websites. It is therefore clearly in the interest of bloggers to get rid of rel=”nofollow” attribute.
The little history of nofollow
The rel=”nofollow” attribute was introduced back in 2005 by Google. The idea behind this concept was that if a link would not affect Google, spammers stop their harmful activities. If the idea was excellent , any blogger still receive dozens of spam comments daily.
If you own a Wordpress blog, there’s a strong chance that the links in the comments are nofollow. Does this prevents spammers to try to post their links for Rolex and Viagra? Certainly not.
Moreover, when one of your readers leaves a comment on your blog, if he has a website, he’ll probably fill the url field and make a link to his own blog. But as the link does have a rel=”nofollow” attribute, it will not receive any credit by Google when they rank websites.
Of course, you leave a comment on a blog when you have something interesting to say, not just because you want to have more backlinks and a higher pagerank.
However, I think that when a reader writes an appropriate comment on my blog, he really deserves that his link should be counted as a backlink, and provide him – on the long term – a higher pagerank.
So, CatsWhoCode.com is a 100% dofollow blog. Any url on this website is counted by Google as a backlink. No nofollow either on my personal weblog.
Time to follow
You’re convinced of the interest of turning off the rel=”nofollow” attribute and you own a blog running Wordpress? Here’s two ways to get rid of this non SEO-Friendly attribute:
Editing Wordpress core:
Modifiying Wordpress core is generally not recommended. However, this solution is kinda easy to implement if you don’t want to install another plugin. The biggest drawback of this technique is that after you upgraded Wordpress, you must restart the operation.
To get rid of the attribute rel=”nofollow” directly in the code of Wordpress, proceed as follows:
Edit the file-how template.php, it resides in the wp-includes directory.
Go to line 48. You should see this:
$return = "<a href='$url' rel='external nofollow'>$author</a>";
Then, you just have to delete the nofollow:
$return = "<a href='$url' rel='external'>$author</a>";
Just save the file, and you’re done.
Using a dedicated plugin:
There are several plugins Wordpress that will work for you. The advantage of a plugin is that you’ll not need to modify Wordpress core, and after you upgrade your Wordpress version, you’ll just have to reactivate the plugin to re-delete the nofollow.
If a plugin is what you chose (good choice!), DoFollow 4.0 and Nofollow Free are both very good in my opinion. They’re super easy to install: Just download the file on the author’s site, upload it to your wp-content/plugins directory, activate it, and bye bye nofollow.
After you deleted the rel=”nofollow” from your blog, don’t hesitate to claim it! On my personal blog, I received more interesting comments after saying goodbye to this useless attribute.
Happy dofollow blogging 
74 Comments + Trackbacks
6.16.2008
Congratulations.
I made the same thing some weeks ago on an advice of alex (http://www.referencement-blog.net/) and his dedicated website for the dofollow cause
(http://www.dofollow.fr/).
7.4.2008
I disagree. Comments should not get google cred. It complicates
things. If I want to follow someone then I will write a separate blog
entry with a link in it. Or put them in my blogroll, etc, explicitly
link to them. Otherwise people will always start putting links into
comments when they wouldn’t have before. You will have -yet another
layer to process- when moderating a comment. I like the level of
silence a link in a comment receives, I think it leads to more free
commenting. esp. since commenting is essentially discussion. What
about linking to things you hate? Then what? Blogging is noisy
enough, we don’t need to remove rel=”nofollow”.
There is still implicit value in the link because people will click on
it and the targeted people will see the referrer as well. So there is
value in that, not just in google cred. So I vote for keeping
rel=”nofollow”, it’s a good standard, but to each his own. I
generally assume (public especially) commenting uses rel=”nofollow”.
I will start not using rel=”nofollow” when it’s the default in
wordpress.
7.4.2008
Thanks for sharing your opinions about the nofollow attribute.
I agree with you that people may use comments of a dofollow blog to only post link, sometimes without even any related topic to your post. It happens to me sometimes, and when it does, and when the comment looks like “Great! Thank you. Visite my site …” I just treat it as a spam.
But, I think an interesting comment like the one you just wrote have no reason not to be followed.
7.31.2008
When you read lots of information online, it is an incentive to become more interactive with the blogs you frequently visit. I think if your audience is aware of DoFollow and NoFollow links then you should allow DoFollows. It may increase some spam, although I bet allot more genuine people will contribute as they are getting something in return.
If your audience is not at all aware of DoFollow links, then it probably won’t make any difference. I find most people who own their own blog/website and are regularly online, understand a bit about online promotion and links. So I’m sure they will consider these things before deciding to make a post.
7.31.2008
I’m agree with you, Lee. Thanks for contributing
8.2.2008
Hi Jbj,
I tend to agree with your take on the do follow comment. Yes, there can be more spam attacks, but for those who are ethical and legit, then they will make sure they are contributing to the discussion, and make on topic comments. I see it as a give and take, and you graciously give of the follow link, while the commentor, should be giving in adding great content to the post, and helping get more unique content for the spiders to crawl.
It’s too bad that people had to destroy a really good thing, but does’t that always end up happening?
Mike
8.2.2008
Totally agree, Mike. A comment like yours totally deserves to be followed!
8.11.2008
Thanks for the useful information. I participate in blogs ad forums on a regular basis. Whilst I frown upon spamming comments, I too believe that if a user has taken the time to contribute meaningfully and share his/her knowledge in web design, SEO or whatever the topic of the post, it is OK to expect a small reward in return in the form of a do follow link back.
8.12.2008
I agree with the idea behind the dofollow movement and tried it on my blog for about a month, but eventually made the choice to return to nofollow. I want to reward my vistors with links, but it resulted in an drastic increase in spam. I had a lot of comment that weren’t “spam”, but simply the one line “nice post, thanks so much”. I’m not looking for anyone to kiss my ass for a link. All they have to do is leave a significant comment. I even allowed anchored linking as long as the comment was legit.
My current plan (once my site builds a little more authority) is to give my regular contextual links in some of my posts. This will help them more than the comment link anyways.
9.3.2008
Not too sure if this is a silly question or not, but does blogger (blogspot) also have the nofollow attribute by default like WordPress?
9.3.2008
@Grant: I heard that yes, but I think there’s a way to get rid of it on blogger too.
9.12.2008
That is a nice Wordpress hack without having to use any plugins. Thanks for sharing the info. But does making a blog without nofollow hurt its search engine ranks?
9.12.2008
I saw this tweak added on many blogs. Maybe to encourage users to comment ? who knows..
Anyway, that for sharing the MOD.
@VMOptions: I think not. I think paging those comments, like 20 per page will be ok. On blogs with too many comments, they were paginated. So the page will have as many outbounds as you allow.
9.18.2008
dofollow websites are true life savers and rescuers of the web reason we know how diffult it is to gain good PR these days. and normally people go dull and hopeless within first 6 months when they see no pr progress of their website then comes the love of dofollow blogs they make hope and let people make their pr. if you ask me with natural link building these days it can take upto a year to make pr5.
but along with making dofollow blogs they take big risk of making their beloved blog spamhole so spammers should reconsider they kill the chance of benefit for normal people. i’ll also make my blog dofollow as soon as i get a good PR i am really scared that google may not panalize me for making it dofollow as for now, when i get a stable amount of readers that wont leave me ever i’ll make my blog dofollow. and there are many dofollow badges available that looks kool and really make you feel proud and the best of all they make you look different from many others
This is my special thanks to All Dofollowers you people just rocks bravo!
9.19.2008
I totally agree, interlinking and using blogs as a social network is a great tool. The only way some of these blogs are found is by the extra credit they get from the “dofollow” via the search engines. There are some great blogs and dedicated bloggers out there, who put in a lot of hard work to get involved in the blogging community, not just to promote there own. Therefore this hard work should be rewarded. Good article!
9.27.2008
hats off to you for making your website do follow.I’ve heard the debate back and forth for so long. Some people think that once you make yours site do follow the spam comments increase. But with the right plug-ins, I think most of those spam comments can be taken care of. Ask for keeping yours do follow.
11.19.2008
I found something called a cpn number that will
give you a new credit profile within 30 days.
the website is
http://www.creditmenow.info
12.2.2008
Using no follow on comments will not damage your rankings.
12.9.2008
I really like this article and I couldn’t agree more. The rel nofollow doesn’t stop spammers and using do follow doesn’t attract more spammers either if a blog is maintained the way it should be. And the no follow will not damage your rankings but they will not help either, because Matt Cutts has repeated over and over that no follow links are disregarded by Google. Spam should be fought with anti-spam measures and not with no follow.
12.16.2008
i wonder when bloggers think that nofollow will help them with spam. they’d better use antispam plugins, akismet for example. or smth like this………
12.25.2008
Anybody have a favorite between DoFollow 4.0 and Nofollow free?
12.31.2008
I use the dofollow plugin, but haven’t added a badge yet… I just switched themes, so I’ll need to find a suitable spot for it
1.1.2009
thanks. quite useful for me!!
but how to remove the dofollow attribute in posts and sidebars??
1.31.2009
I know many blogs use do follow while they are growing readership to help encourage posting, but after the readership is established they remove it. However, I’d argue you better put a best of commenters section so they get some link love for commenting good thoughts.
2.3.2009
I agree with baby shower. Most blogs i follow do that. It’s somewhat a sad thing. But it’s their blog. Anyway great article. Keep up the good work. Nice blog too. Will be back for more
2.3.2009
Very interesting post. I totally agree with you. We can use plugins to delete/block spam comments. At the same time we can attract more people to our blog with “do follow” method.
2.9.2009
Thanks for the post! I have done a ton of work on this topic and have put together a comprehensive reference of WordPress dofollow plugins. Hopefully it will provide even more solutions for your readers. Thanks!
2.12.2009
@babyshower: I’ve added the top commentators plug-in in order to try and get a few extra readers. I thought about making the blog dofollow, but decided against it for now.
2.12.2009
Nice information there. I prefer using DoFollow
Works like charm and no need to mess with wordpress files much.
2.14.2009
Directed to Milan , if you do not have comments the blog will die , and you will not get visitors , encouraging visitors to leave a comments will be beneficial , if a comment is left the search engines are pinged and there is new unique content to index,if you ge enough comments you do not need to add new content as much because the comments are new content.The vast majority of blogs you find from search engines are professional bloggers , not because the writing is great but because they know how to do the system in a way that the search engines like.
You are gonna have to come around to our way of thinking or live in the depths of the last page of google !
Personally I always install comment luv , it’s a great way to tell visitors that you support comment leaving, and are more than happy to give a backlink.
how many visitors would you would you get if you get if you excluded those that onlywant to leave a backlink.
Leaving a comment has a visitor stay on your page for a long period of time ( in case you dont know ,. the google toolbar monitors how long you stay on asite and if a lot of visitors leave in seconds after visiting then the rank will drop , the more pages the visitor goes to , the more importance your site is attributed.
Funny though you leave a comment on how you don’t like people leaving comments , you are mixed up dude
2.14.2009
yes, he did what he just describe. any way, tooth, i also check out comments aside from reading the post itself. sometimes, i get to pick up some new things from commentators who leaves remarkable comments, like i did with yours. if what you’ve mentioned is true, your comment is quality content already.
to the auhtor, i also have the dofollow widget on my blog, also installed commentluv. haven’t installed linkluv and top commentator yet, but i plan to to do so.
2.16.2009
Testing if Google follows me back to my site!
3.2.2009
nice post , thanx
google want people to use its service adword for paid search, so its promoting “nofollow”
3.10.2009
Whether you agree or don’t with nofollow/dofollow thanks for sharing the tips. I’m surprised just how prevelant the nofollow tag is.
3.12.2009
Great article. Nice blog. Keep it coming. Mike
4.5.2009
ah this what i need may be
4.9.2009
Do follow is certainly the way to go. it really can boost up your comments and what more makes you happy than some awesome comments on your article.
) Awesome blog you’ve got man. Keep it up. Appreciate all the effort.
4.12.2009
I’m using Kimmo dofollow plugin on my blog. So far, no problem at all using this plugin. Love to see many have joined dofollow movement here.
4.14.2009
I use the SEM Do Follow plugin for Wordpress. Askimet and hashcash keep most of the SPAM bots at bay, only the goofball spammy human commenters do get a bit old after a while.
However, I do believe in rewarding those who leave valuable commentary with the do follow Google juice, so I’m keeping things Do Follow.
4.17.2009
Cool, I got rid of the NoFollow on my blog yesterday. Had loads of comments since.
4.24.2009
Well, being a dofollow blog owner I have to agree, thus type of blog is always under spammer attack. I delete spammy comments manually and it takes much time, however, it worth it because both commentators and blog owners should benefit from the comment. Blog owners get quality comments while commentators get quality backlinks. Dofollow rules.
5.23.2009
I agree with the whole do follow concept. Every blog owner can set up their blog to delete unwelcome comments so leave it at that. If you don’t have the time to follow up on your blogs then perhaps you earned a little or a lot of spam!
6.1.2009
Well I certainly do think do follow is the way to go. Even thoguh it is the prime target of comment spam I really do think It is do follow invites much more informative and useful comments.
6.8.2009
Its a tricky balance betweek rewarding good comments and encouraging spamming. Personally i get frustrated that on my art blogs i dont even have the choice, as on wordpress.com. The internet is about choice. Good wishes to you for spreading information on this.
6.25.2009
Could you explain to us what different between rel=’external nofollow’ and rel=”nofollow” ?
thanks
7.1.2009
This is helpful. I want to know whether the blogger blogs have this option too. I mean does this option come into the template or the css in the blogger servers?
Thank you!
7.16.2009
The dofollow movement is a good idea in theory, but spam will alwasy be its downfall.
7.17.2009
Really useful information.Searching for it quite some time. I prefer to go for code editing rather than installing anymore plug-ins. Much needed for small scale bloggers like me to get some credential. Thanks for sharing.
7.28.2009
Hmm, I cant find the file you template.php that you said, was it renamed in wp 2.8.2?
Thanks anyway, I’ll just find in texts of php files I guess.
8.23.2009
Hi fedmich, I think the template.php referred to in this post is actually “comment-template.php”. So, you’ll have to check this “comment-template.php” file for the “nofollow” link.
9.2.2009
Hey Jean-Baptiste Jung….I totally agree with you. I am a newbie and I believe we should all give credit where credit is due. Lots of great info on your site. Thanks
9.4.2009
I think that Nofollow Free plugin it’s the best since you can chose after how many approved comments authors links become dofollow,it’s a effective way to let visitors know that you don’t accept spammy comments.
9.20.2009
As a new WP blog owner, I’m just now getting around to understanding the value of dofollow. I’m glad to know that I can make the switch, It’s not something that is out in the open with the latest WP install.
9.21.2009
I also feel that NoFollow is like NoTrust on the community.
This post (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/nofollow-is-dying-the-impact-of-microblogging-and-nofollow-on-seo) discusses about how some nofollow links should be followed. This also means that it is possible to differentiated worthy nofollow links.
If so, why cann’t it be the other way. Why cann’t search engines more effectively discriminate the not-worthy followed links?
9.23.2009
Well I have to say, I’ve read the post and all the comments and I am still confused as to what I should do. I run my blog and want what is best for my readers, but also what is best for me and my site. I still don’t quite see the advantages of me having this or not having this but I want to learn about as much as I can to make sure I”m doing the most that I can, even the little things like this.
I wish it was more simple, like no follow = happiness and follow = poop.
If I turn off the nofollow on wordpress, will google hate me?
This is also assuming that I have something like Aksimet for Spam already. So if having it or not having it doesn’t really affect spam, how does removing the nofollow help increase hits to my blog, …or my happiness?
11.2.2009
thanks for the usefull post,
cheers
this is very usefull to me
12.5.2009
Thanks for the code… i think it is better to use the code instead of plugin
12.11.2009
I am take neutral in this case.
I will use dofollow with comment moderate first.
If the link is related to the post content, i think they deserve to get backlink to their site and search engine follow it.
By this rule, the blogosphere will more live and more attractive the people for discussing.
That’s why there is moderate facility.
12.29.2009
Well DoFollow certainly can invite some good quality comments and backlinks. But then there is the problem of comment spam.
1.8.2010
love your dofollow. i guess it means i have to make comments here.
1.25.2010
Thanks for this informative post, i think i would like to re visit your blog. awesome work dude
1.30.2010
Very useful skills for me.
Dofollow is quite right, because sometimes comments would be part of the post, and as important as the the post